Football

Former Buckeye Assistants React To Smith Scandal

by Tom Orr

A pair of former Ohio State assistants who are now head coaches elsewhere have shared their thoughts on the latest developments in the Zach Smith story.

Chris Ash and Tom Herman worked together for one season, alongside Zach Smith in 2014.

It was the last of Herman’s three years in Columbus and the first of Ash’s two seasons with the Buckeyes.

Ash is now the head coach of Rutgers, while Herman is at Texas.

“I’ve followed it, obviously,” said Ash. “I’d start by saying that we take any type of abuse, whether it be versus a female or male, domestic abuse or not, very seriously. We have a lot of sympathy for victims in those situations.”

Ash was on the coaching staff at Ohio State during the 2015 season when some of the alleged incidents occurred. However, he declined to talk about any specifics of the case.

“I can’t tell you who knew what, who knew what when, any of that type of stuff. I know I was there, and that’s about all I can tell you,” Ash said. “They’ll go through an investigation. Obviously you guys know how I feel about Coach Meyer and his family, but it’s a very serious situation and one that I’m sure all parties there will take very seriously.”

Herman was already at his next job by the fall of 2015. He left the Buckeyes after the 2014 national championship to take the head coaching position at Houston. When reporters asked Herman about Smith, he didn’t want to talk about it.

“I left the program after the 2014 season and the things that occurred, to my knowledge, happened in late 2015,” said Herman. “I really don’t think it would be fair or appropriate, to be honest with you, for me to comment about a situation at another program that happened while I wasn’t there.”

When asked if he was aware of any allegations of violence involving Smith and his wife during his time in Columbus, Herman declined to answer.

“Again, it’s always been my policy to not comment on another program. We’re at Texas, we’ve been at Texas for a year and a half. And as sensitive as a subject as this is, to comment in a forum like this, I think, would be very inappropriate.”

You can watch the responses from both coaches in their entirety below.

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4 Responses

  1. The Zach Smith trial should be interesting. “Rumour has it” the police will be called for the defense.

  2. Another Gene Smith Debacle. He threw Tressel under the bus because of his own ineptness and cowardice. He will try to CYA it again and pass the buck. If what Urban says happened he did his job. SMITH DID not. He is only in this for himself, Mr Big Shot. He does not deserve to be a Buckeye never has. Bring Tressel back as the AD.
    It was supposedly rumored that Urban was going to resign yesterday, instead he issued his statement. My son happens to know where Urban was yesterday as Urban was on a plane from CBus to Orlando. A close friend of my son’s was on that plane as well.

  3. They both handled it well. Tom Herman dismissed it perfectly. Chris’ comments suggest someone knew. Urbans released statement shows that Urban knew and did his job. Why is the TEAM being caught up in the middle if this had been reported up the food chain? Why hasn’t the person or persons Urban reported it to NOT come forward. They could have squashed this entire thing before Fall Camp opened.

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